


Home Sweet Home

by InkwellSelkie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Post-Season/Series 06, black paladin allura please, but it's light angst, romelle is hard to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 01:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15232272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkwellSelkie/pseuds/InkwellSelkie
Summary: In time, the Blue Lion became home to a sort of makeshift support group for homesick alteans.





	Home Sweet Home

Dark, velvety abyss adorned with stars like scattered pearls stretched infinitely in front of the screens of five colourful robotic lions soaring through the void of space. Romelle sat in the back of the Blue Lion's cockpit, listening to Allura's steady voice and Coran's muffled snores with her knees pulled in tight to her chest, a fat yellow mouse snoozing on her shoulder, and her radiant charoite-purple eyes lazily regarding old book with crumbling yellow pages in front of her. It was hard to say exactly when or why she had begun to read Classic Poetry about Intergalactic Romance but Allura hadn't saved many books and it was certainly something. Fifty pages in the blonde had already blushed more than in most of her life. Come to think of it, why would the princess even own such a tome? Romelle would never have pegged her as the poetry reading type. Essays, sure. Novels, perhaps.

But semierotic poetry?  
Never.

That had certainly been a shocker.

Although then again, it could always be Coran's, but thinking of an old man reading this made her very uncomfortable.

She let her gaze drift over to the paladin in question. Allura was in the pilot's seat even though the lion was on autopilot now, like 90 percent of the time. She had let her alabaster hair down some hours ago (it was a good look for her) and was engaged in conversation over the comms with the yellow paladin and the two conscious occupants of the Black Lion: Keith and Krolia. They were noticeably nicer to the princess than to her, not to say that they had been unkind, just that every time she'd interacted with them had been a conversation between either equally traumatized strangers or soldiers and a crime witness, never quite friends.

The other black paladin, Shiro had been awake a few days ago, but he had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a week since she'd met him, so passing out must be second nature to him by now. Romelle would occasionally overhear one of the other paladins-usually Pidge-joke that she was so happy Shiro x A Nap was finally canon. What this poor man had been like before was the subject of much concern to the blonde. Nothing for it now.

"Oh man, I can't wait to get home," Hunk sighed, dark eyes growing wistful "I love space and all, but it's gotta've been at least a year since I last saw my parents."

An awkward sentiment arose. Hunk, seeming to remember that everyone involved in the conversation had lost at least one parent, slammed his mouth shut.

"That probably sounded super insensitive, oh man I am so sorry."

Allura shook her head, an understanding smile curled on her lips.

"It's alright," she replied "It's great that you have something to look forward to going back to. What about you, Keith?"

The boy on the screen shrugged, stonefaced.

"Uh, I didn't have much going for me at the time-" he began

"Can confirm," Hunk cut in "He lived alone in the desert. We saw it. Continue."

"-yeah. So... I guess it's more of the security and familiarity than actual people that I miss. Everyone I care about is already..."

He trailed off, but Romelle didn't miss the soft grins on Hunk and Allura's faces.

"Awwww, buddy!" Hunk began to gush "We lo-"

"WHAT?!"

All eyes swivelled to Allura as she began to mutter, face lax and shocked, one hand covering her mouth. Her pupils were dilated like bullseyes, her breath inaudible. She didn't seem to be in any physical pain, but her emotional distress was clear as glass and seemed to be immense. Romelle jumped to her feet instinctively.

Allura jolted as if realizing the attention she'd attracted and straightened herself out.

"I'm sorry," she said stiffly, a please-don't-interrogate-me smile on her face "I fear my lack of sleep is getting to my head. I'll just... continue without me."

She closed the screens on two worried faces.

A strangled sigh wrenched itself from her throat, despair dripping off her tongue like sour milk. It was true that she hadn't been sleeping well but this wasn't exhaustion. Romelle knew insomnia far too well for a variety of reasons, having spent more than her fair share of nights sleepless, shaking, overthinking, sobbing, or some absolutely awful combination of all three. She stepped cautiously toward the paladin and placed a hand on her shoulder, jarring Allura out of her trancelike state.

Allura turned away but made no move to either shake off the contact or confide in her. It was a bit of an emotional stalemate of a situation.

Should she say something? There was clearly something wrong with Allura but Romelle felt herself getting anxious at the prospect of finding out what it was. What could be the problem this time? Space was a lot bigger and a hell of a lot emptier than she'd ever thought. They were just nine people and a wolf floating through the void in the supposed direction of a planet she'd never heard of but most seemed excited to be going back to. There was literally nothing to bother them except one another. Whatever it was, it must be bad to still be plaguing her this far away from...well, anything.

Ugh.

"I had my brother to talk to," she began, and immediately chastised herself because wow, excellent way to start a pep talk "When he left, I was all alone. I had so much in my heart and nowhere to put it. But...you have friends. You have somewhere to put your agony. Don't close that door."

Allura turned to face her with a cryptic grin that filled her stomach with little fluttery things and her cheeks with supernova heat.

"Thank you. I...I think I needed that. I just...-" she paused as if debating against herself what to say "they're all going home, and I-we...can't."

This was a lie.

Not their mutual inability to go home, that was painfully true, but the cause of her outburst. She'd had the same melancholy look behind her eyes all week, but never acted out like that.

It wasn't hard to tell, and Romelle was certain Allura knew she knew, but if she wasn't ready to explain, Romelle wouldn't push it.

Instead, she propped herself up on the armrest of her seat and listened to her drone about all the things she missed about the real Altea.

Somewhere between the tart, balmy scent of the pink juniberry flowers that grew in the mountains and the comforting warmth of her mother's hands when she taught Allura to dance, the princess fell asleep for the first time in days.

Romelle went back to her book feeling considerably lighter.

 

*****

 

The next occurrence was three days later on some dusky blue planet orbiting just a little too close to its star. It had been too hot for heavy armour, even with the cooling functions at full blast, so the crew had donned their ordinary clothing with sleeves and pantlegs rolled up. It was bizarre. Romelle had only ever seen these people in uniform protective gear, weapons in hand, so there was a bit of shock factor in seeing them looking and acting casual.

Also Coran had startlingly well-built arms for an old guy.

They'd encountered the locals and managed to obtain a free table at some cheap underground restaurant because apparently Voltron was kind of a big deal in space. When Romelle asked, Coran went into a long, excited explanation about the "Defender of the Universe" but she zoned out halfway through and hoped it wasn't that important to know.

The restaurant was in a large, underground cavern decorated with many pools and tiny waterfalls along the rocky walls, which, though admittedly helping to cool down the room, mostly just increased the humidity by 100000. Chairs with cocoonlike shape hung from the ceiling around roughly hewn tables carved from pearlescent stone and some kind of dark, spiky flowers sat in vases all around. Overall, not too shabby a venue, but the food...

The food was absolute shit.

Nobody could read the menu, so they all ended up ordering the same thing, just to be safe. It turned out to be a plate of gamy reddish roots doused in a sauce so thick Romelle swore it was practically solid, with a side of green fry-like...things.

"I know it's not the fanciest cuisine," joked their three eyed, silvery scaled waitress "but there's nothing quite like Genian fast-food for hungry space travellers. Enjoy!"

Hey, that seemed encouraging enough, maybe it was better than it looked.

How could she have been so wrong.

"Ugh, this is awful," Pidge gagged once the waitress was out of earshot "Any chance we could get a table...anywhere else?"

"Seconded." Lance chimed in.

"There's food in the lions if you're going to be like that," replied Coran, who seemed to have some sort of bizarre and impossible tolerance for horrible alien food.

The pair grumbled and returned to taking hesitant bites of their roots.

Romelle set down her fork and decided whatever was stashed in the ships was a safer bet than whatever this was called. A hand slammed down on the table next to her, shaking the nearest bowls. She looked over at Allura, whose posture was ramrod straight and eyes were wide and out of focus as if in a trance. The princess snapped out of her daze suddenly and glanced sidewise at her, offering a reassuring little grin.

It was ridiculously unconvincing.

When they returned to the surface, she saw her gaze off warily at the other lions, each in turn, lingering for just a second too long on Black.

That night, Allura let Romelle braid her hair while she described the grainy salt loaves wrapped in ribbon sold in the square to console those who hadn't been chosen to go to the other colony.

 

***** 

 

The happenings continued for about a phoeb, each time Allura grew more at ease until there was no longer any panic or confusion. She no longer seemed to need comforting after the third time, but occasionally, whenever one of them felt particularly homesick, the other would sit down with her and listen as she talked about some of the things or people she missed. Sometimes Coran joined in, which always helped to lift the spirit of the conversation. For someone who always seemed so cheerful, he could show a hell of a lot of emotional vulnerability when he spoke for a long time. 

In time, the Blue Lion became the home of a sort of makeshift Support Group For Homesick Alteans.

And together, leaving their entire lives behind was a little more okay.

 

*****

 

"I've been meaning to tell you something," Allura stated flatly.

It took a moment for Romelle to realize she was talking to her. She looked around to find Allura turned around in her seat to face her and set down the brush she was using to groom the mice.

"What is it?" she asked, stepping closer.

Allura looked down and then back, anxiety curled in the furrow between her brows.

"The Black Lion has been speaking to me."  
Romelle blinked.

For a long, uncomfortable minute, there was silence.

"What?" the blonde inquired, genuinely confused.

Allura sighed and laughed awkwardly.

"I know it's a bit hard to believe, but that's what's be-"

"No no," she interrupted "I mean, they can talk?"

Allura laughed for real now, loud and clear and there it was again, that irritating flutter in her stomach, warm and tingling.

"Yes, they talk," she continued after composing herself "Only to their paladins though, which is why I was so scared the first time it happened. You...you remember that of course."

Romelle nodded.

"It was so confusing, it didn't sound like Blue at all, and then once I figured out it was Black, and I didn't know why, but then....."

"It wants you to pilot it," Romelle finished "That's why."

The princess swallowed and nodded, not quite hesitant but definitely vulnerable in some sense. So what? the Black Lion wanted Allura as its paladin. What was the big deal? Judging by the colours of their armour, some of the team members had probably switched lions already, so...

"Why is this a problem?"

Sighing, the paladin turned briefly to the screen, eyeing the other lions.

"It seems a bit much doesn't it?" she began "Three paladins for one lion! And then there's the issue of Blue and who would pilot her. Would she want me to stay with her? Would she want Lance back? Maybe we could go back to the original lion arrangement, but then what about Shiro? And even if it does all work out, would I even be able to lead Voltron well?"

Wow.

"Well," Romelle took a deep breath "You already led the team before becoming a paladin, right? So leading Voltron would just further cement that role. And I'm sure the others would understand, they all seem...nice enough. There's nothing to worry about."

Dear stars she hoped that helped.

"Thank you." Allura whispered.

A few moments more passed in silence, soft and comfortable unlike earlier as the two alteans watched distant stars and galaxies shimmer and glow and simply exist.

And everything was a little more okay.


End file.
